National Academic Reference Standards

The Council for Academic Accreditation and Quality Assurance of Higher Education has prepared a set of National Academic Reference Standard (NARAS) for a number of programs, and the Council plans to finalize the rest of the standards in the coming years. The National Academic Reference Standards (NARS) are defined as the expected minimum requirements of knowledge and skills needed to fulfill the academic degree requirements in the university. The National Academic Standards Reference Document has been structured of four main components:

Attributes of the graduate from the program:

These are the characteristics and features of the graduate of the academic program, such as cognitive, skills and ethical dimensions. The formulation of these in the program document may be general, and later transferred into specific attributes according to the dimensions of professional performance expected of the graduate.

Accreditation bodies have no specification about the ideal number of these attributes, as this number varies from (8) to (12). This difference is not in itself of paramount importance, as long as these attributes cover the aspects of performance to be achieved throughout the academic program.

Intended learning outcomes of the program:

This refers to an accurate description of the results of the students' learning in the academic program. They should be written in the document in clear and precise terms that specify what the students will be able to demonstrate in terms of knowledge, understanding, skills and behavior after successful completion of the program.

These outcomes should be comprehensive and integrated into the four areas of learning: knowledge and comprehension, intellectual skills, specialized practical skills, and general skills.

Accreditation bodies vary in the ideal number of these outputs, they range between 12 and 16 educational outputs for the academic program.

Teaching strategies and methods in the program:

These make a set of overlapping and integrated principles, rules, methods, and procedures that guide the steps of the academic staff to organize the education of their students, evaluate them, and help them achieve the specifications of the graduate and the intended learning outcomes in the academic program.

Strategies and methods of assessment:

Assessment is the means by which students' ability to achieve academic standards is measured. To ensure this, consistent and credible assessment tools should be designed at both the course and program level.